Posts by Paul Charters

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Crap games, perhaps?

Perhaps the neverending stream of football (and other sports) games, and driving games, and half-baked poorly-made games are the cause.

The stupid DRM forced on legitimate purchasers of games have stopped me buying many titles, and MMOs have taken alot of time and money away from sales of new games.

And so many games get plugged as 'must haves' but are actually pretty awful. Mirror's Edge was a perfect example, a weak product overplugged.

It's also very difficult to get to try out games nowadays. Even the demos tend to focus on multiplayer rather than giving us a taste of the single-player experience so we can feel the atmosphere a game will give us.

The other way games could improve would be to be a pay-as-you-play. So you pay purely depending on how far you get into the game. I'd be much happier paying a £5/£10 starting cost and then the rest of the £35-£45 gets charged as I progress through the game. It should be easy to implement through XBox Live or Games for Windows.

But...why?

Really....please...tell me why there's such a buzz over a tablet?

Tablets aren't really all THAT much use anyway. They aren't easy to type with, they're awkward to carry around and too big to use as a phone. So far the only practical use I've seen for one is network management whilst walking around a large site.

Now, if they were releasing a wrist-mounted, iPhone-thin but larger-and-longer screened device for communications-on-the-go (a-la-Chuck) I could understand the interest...but I just don't see the excitement...and I did with the iPhone (wouldn't get one, but that's because they're inferior technology with poor battery life).

We'll see what magic Apple pulls out of the hat, but at the moment no-one has really told me what use all these executives who bought an iPhone because it was the latest cool gadget would possibly get out of such a device.

Text Message Speech?

My text messages somehow manage to use all of the letters of which each word is actually made up.

Look, it's very simple. If people want to type rubbish then it's up to them. In the same vein it is up to me if I ignore such messages, which I do, until such time that they decide to write in at least a nearly-decent manner.

How people get paid to study the use of text messaging by children is just beyond me. We used to live in a world where real things got done.

Empowers Parents?

So....here is a product that lets you spy on your kids more so you can stress out about every little move they make and still just be told to 'f--- off or I'll stab you' if you mention any of their behaviour....

You missed one...

What a waste...

The NHS is wasting a vast amount of money on the development of a useless application for a mediocre device that is only used by a small percentage of the population - mostly the executives all trying desperately to fit-in with the 'latest' fashion accessory.

This just means more hassle...

Firstly, 'CCTV doesnt stop crime, drunks on a weekend bender dont give a thought about anything let alone "ohhh I'm on camera, better not do anything naughty!"'. Stop coming down on drunk people - you CAN be drunk and NOT a violent criminal, public nuisance or cost to the public! Alcohol != violence. People = violence.

Secondly, all that will happen is that the police will start handing out auto-tickets to anyone and everyone who happens to have a slip of paper fall from their pocket, or if they scrape mud off their shoes in a non 'socially-friendly' way. This will put their figures up, bring in more 'income' and just p*ss off the public even more.

Oh gods...

Why is it that every time I turn around people are trying to find new ways to share every bit of data, but not protect people from those who can abuse it?

Seriously - people LIE. They will smile to your face and take everything they can when your back is turned. There is no 'good chap' mentality. People aren't 'sound'. They are criminal and sneaky, and it's a dog-eat-dog world.

The people who tend to make these deals or make these agreements really don't understand that we have it nice in this country, when compared to others. So many of the British are polite or upstanding (despite what the panic-mongering media will tell you) and these people just don't understand that in so many other places the simple principle is 'screw everyone if you possibly can'.

I'm slightly confused...

...MS have endured years of antitrust legislation and near-criminalisation for having their own browser/software included with their OS...

....so Google can go ahead and create an OS that is completely browser-centric and not support other options, whilst it collects and sends all of your personal data to Google, and they can do this without any sort of legal roadblocks?

Spyware?

'Consumers recognise the Google brand, but still do not understand what Android is'.

Well, I avoid it because I expect it to be sending every bit of data I have to Google and it's marketing partners.

I know I'm paranoid to a degree, but I cannot see Google as anything other than the vast marketing machine that it is, with the hope of pumping adverts at me 24/7 in the hope that repetitive marketing will steadily brainwash me into buying the products listed. Android I only see as a means to get my data, and the data of everyone in my contacts, in order for this to happen.

I genuinely expect Google's various OS's, whether mobile or desktop or whatever, to, at some point, start pushing adverts directly onto my screen, probably eventually linked by GPS. eg. Oh look, I just walked past a shop and BAM! HERE IS YOUR HISTORY AND THINGS YOU'VE BOUGHT BEFORE THAT YOU CAN BUY HERE! BUY BUY BUY! BUY NOW!

D*mn right

The 'happy medium' that so many people have asked for isn't quite as simple as they'd like to believe.

Prison is supposed to be a happy medium, but prisons (in this country) became places with TVs, games consoles, whores, mobiles and all the drugs you can get man-loved for.

There is a very simple approach to various crimes. Intent. Deliberate Intent.

You don't accidentally burgle someone's home. You don't accidentally take a gun, walk into a shop, shoot the owner and take his stuff, leaving his family destroyed. You don't accidentally steal over $9.5m. I say more punishments like this for deliberate crimes and less for petty stuff.

OK...

I recall when I was young (all those years ago) when it was nearly only girls who had a 'dear diary'.

You're now telling me that 18% of boys have gone that way? Sheeeezz.....

Seriously, get outside, play some games, have some fun and stop all that emotional exploring and self-reflection - along with the amount of advertising hammered at you nowadays on how worthless you are it's no wonder so many people are on crash diets and antidepressants by the time they're 20.

I know this sounds like a 'boys go ug...girls smell' post, but it isn't intended that way, it's just worthwhile getting outside and to stop giving a cr*p about what the world thinks of you for at least an hour a day!

Three Words

Get Over It

Come on, the chairman of BT gets to be part of a trial of a BT product? What's the big deal? Suck it up and accept you aren't the chairman of BT either.

If the local residents had any smarts they'd ask whether this means that their local exchange will be ready for the final product first when it becomes available, and they'd have a very good argument for why it should be.

Hah! IT jobs...

We've only recently been finally reaching the backlash of the sheer push of 'IT' workers that we suddenly magically had in the country and made it hard to get a decent IT job.

Said backlash is that companies are starting to realise that they hired every person who claimed they were skilled in IT, even when they're 'skillz' amounted to 'didn't use the Euro-plug cable sent in the box when they got their home PC'.

It's true, we have a glut of 'IT workers', but that definition nowadays also includes the mindless drones who read the same spiel off of their PC screen (that someone else set up) over the phone to customers.

Truly skilled workers who will work through the entire day without trying to skip off by 3pm? Harder to find than you think.

Bing is a stupid name? Ahahah...

Bing IS a stupid name but then, when you actually think about it, so is Google. I mean, come on - Google. Just because you're used to it doesn't mean that so many people spent a long time laughing at the silliness of the name.

The one worry I have here is that if Wolfram Alpha provided unbiased information, wouldn't it be completely against the whole point of it to pipe it's data through to Bing or anyone else - companies that make a fortune out of biasing their data?

Clouds...just bad...

It's not just MS who make mistakes. I always find it hilarious when all these (predictable) people all dive out and scream 'z0mg M$ 5uxx0rzz!'.

Look, you put your data on any cloud service and you're asking for it. It's that simple. No service is going to work 100% of the time and no provider can really be trusted with any data you should ever consider private.

WHS isn't too bad for what it does, generally. Yes, it's not the dream-OS we'd all like, but none of them are, despite whatever fanboi-ism rears it's ugly head. It also has some weaknesses and downright annoying limitations.

Linux distros and variants tend to mean work and effort from alot of peoples' perspectives, including many of us geechies who do actually know our stuff, including how to install Linux distros and variants and have done it many, many times.

WHS is simple and straightforward and relatively painless, and a short-term fault is hardly the reason to scream like children. Let's face it, people wanted to sue MS over XBox downtime last year (or was it the year before...or is it every year) - it's just silly.

I hate to say it...

But maybe this just shows the Americans are getting ahead of so much of the rest of the (idiot) world and recognising that having 400 'friends' on your list actually means squat, and the people you should really be bothered with are the ones with whom you genuinely have some sort of relationship.

At first, social networking can be exciting, and hundreds of people get added to your friend list. However, sooner or later people tend to start realising that they aren't all that tight with so many people and just can't be bothered to keep up with them AND find enough time in the day to perform even the basic chores, let alone go to work, etc.

So, sooner or later they either start cutting people off (because seriously, how many f---ing requests can you stand to send someone a f---ing pig on some farm game anyway?) and recognising that alot of them are just pumping cr*p out in a desperate attempt to get attention.

Eventually, many many people will really pare their lists down to the people the act they actually know and have any sort of relationship with, and advertisers will push to find even more ways to drop intrusive adverts on users' PCs.

To all the negativites...

The weird thing is that I don't disagree.

It's all very well and good for us techies to look down on others, but to most people something like the x-ray machine is fanastic. It's helped perform uncountable medical diagnoses for problems in every part of the body for vast amounts of people. You may not have been to hospital recently, but you will thank the deity or non-deity of your choice when you need that machine. The queues to use them are ample evidence of their utility.

It has helped doctors not only stop pain and anguish for people, but also to assist in growth and in preventing future problems.

So before you all scream things like 'the car', 'the fridge' (which is pretty cool, pun not intended), 'rockets' and such - just remember that none of those really help people. The x-ray machine has truly helped people over the years, and I think it may very well deserve the kudos it has received.

And to those who pointed out that DNA was discovered and not invented...well, you're right...but perhaps it's not just about DNA itself, but the processes to discover, study and use it?

Y-aaawwwnnn...

If you really expect an OS, any OS to be safe from viruses and/or malware you really are living with your heads in the cloud...and the cloud is a very stupid place to be.

Look, let's all just grow up a bit. The simple fact is that there are a bunch of a*seholes out there who want to take your private data and financial information (called Google - ahhhh, fight! fight! fight!), and the ability to spread the software that does these very things. There will always be more ways to make it happen being spread, and there will always be methods to combat it.

(And yes, I don't need any pedantry surrounding the term 'always')

The sooner we just get visual confirmation of people spending the better. I mean, we live in the most camera'd country in the world...why not put cameras to some real use and only purchases to be sent along with an on-the-spot-taken image?

Well...

...duh!

It's the same principle as spoiled children. Scream, kick and make a public nuisance of yourself to get what you want.

I like the report though - hopefully it'll pave the way for use extreme moderates, whose only extreme-beliefs are that everyone else so far has constantly f-ed things up, and it's time for some new thinking and common sense.

The 'cloud' - turns out it's a dust storm...

The one thing that REALLY worries me is this tendency pundits seem to have to really believe that 'cloud' (clod) computing is the absolute way forward. If there's anything those of us who actually work in the industry are sure of, it is that there are a few absolute killers of any possibility to moving your data to the 'cloud'.

1. Do you really want all of your data placed on someone else's servers, to be scanned, indexed and kept by that company. Don't try to tell me that the data wouldn't be thoroughly 'raped' by companies such as Google and Microsoft. (Harsh term, yes I know - says how I feel about it though).

2. Are you really so sure in your provider never going bust? You know, when that company that seemed so great who has all of your data to hand suddenly collapses like a flan in a cupboard, and their servers are sold off to cover the administration fees?

3. Are you really so confident that you, and all of your company workstations, will be 100% uptime connected to your data, with no glitches, slowdowns or firewall faults, etc? I wouldn't be. Hell, in this country I'd pretty much EXPECT BT's woefully sh*te infrastructure to fail me.

4. So how much do you trust your employees? OK, that's good. Now, how much do you trust other companies' employees? Put your data up on a system and you are putting it at the mercy of anyone who can access that system. I know from experience that computer security is only as good as the trustworthiness of those who have physical access to the servers. I mean, right now we have any poxy teenage first-job part-time council employee having access to our private data. Do you really, HONESTLY, think it would be any different?

I still don't get it...

I mean...why would anyone be so desperate to adore someone that they would follow whatever cr*p they post up?

And why would anyone be so desperate for attention that they would post up every little thing they do or thought they have?

I still just don't understand Twitter - what is the actual, beneficial, use of it? All I've seen is opportunities for pointless rubbish (hey, I'm on the bog!) and bullsh*t scamming and lies (balloon boy).

I've even seen parties where people all go to a great big venue and all stand there staring down at their phones tapping away....they were all surrounded by people! Why wasn't anyone talking? One guy and girl were so chuffed that they were talking to each other from 10ft away! It's pathetic!

Erm...

'It's not about what percentage of the country voted, it's about the percentage of the people that actually got off their arse and voted.'

True, except the term 'actually got off their arse and voted' should probably actually read 'were utterly desperate for someone to add a 'none of the above' box to the ballot paper and couldn't bring themselves to vote for either the douche or the turd' (South Park reference).

Erm...

There's alot of hate and pedantry in the comments here, and I only skimmed them...but surely the entire problem is moot if you avoid using any of Google's spyware-ridden rubbish in the first place?

MS, Google, Apple, Sony...they're all the same and criticising one citing another as an example is an exercise in futility. What you need to do is set a series of standards on how things SHOULD be to protect people and ensure all their data, usage, etc is safe and locked away (UNLESS they specifically request their data be used by these companies) and then compare the practices of these companies against those standards.

OK...

"We are increasingly looking to the internet to get our message out," he said.

I heard, "We are increasingly wasting your money on PR and the Innn tttteerrrrrr neeeeeeettt? rather than good policing, stopping crime, catching and punishing officers who abuse their power, and protecting and serving the public".

Ever noticed...

...how in some peoples' minds the words 'rights' seems to translate into 'to be how I want them to be'?

Of course, putting ANY information into Google and expecting it to stay private is just laughably stupid. It's the biggest data-collection agency in the world, and it will give out whatever data it has. Only a real fool would think any of their private details are private the moment the electrical signal reaches the wall socket.

Ugh...

It's simple...

The way to get any technology or product into the business, or even home, markets is simple. You make it available to the techs who have to install/support it and you show them a reason why they could possibly want it.

So far the opinions I've heard/seen are as follows:

1. IPv6 involves long awkward addresses that we have no idea how to force to be static, or even how to remember them for each device. It's difficult enough remembering the IPv4 addresses for the 8 devices on this 100-machine network let alone what the IPv6 addresses would be.

2. IPv6 causes horrible horrible problems. Applications, DNS queries (even on brand newly installed networks), and general network connectivity goes down the pan when you're trying to co-exist IPv4 and IPv6. IPv6-only networks just don't work either. How are we going to prepare and support things that just don't work?

3. What we have works. It's that simple. In the case of NAT situations all we need is an IPv6 address for the external devices that translate at the firewall and are forwarded onto the IPv4 address. From current experience we don't believe that is going to work.

4. We can't see why a simpler system couldn't have been used. I know the obvious complaints and negativity about it, but why isn't it possible for the current IPv4 system to just be extended? This (and I know the main reasons) could include separation by nation, for example - that way identification of where the intrusion attempts and spam are coming from (coughEasternEuropeAfricaandFarEastcoughsplutter) could be isolated more easily and those who don't want communication with those nations could block them by choice and only open up specific addresses for the times someone they want to communicate with was available.

We aren't against new systems, but when they seem this crap we see no reason to take it up.

I don't get it...

The first and most important thing I don't quite understand:

Why would the company that produced hard disks that (through their software) would not allow you to copy music and video files onto them produce a player that plays music and videos from a hard disk? It's completely hypocritical!

The things that I've pieced together through skimming the comments:

.iso rips of DVDs don't work properly - playing the main movie only seems unlikely - surely it plays all the legal warnings and everything, otherwise WD would have a massive legal fight on it's hands...

I don't see support for rips of blu-ray discs, so that's out.

I haven't seen any mention of being able to update/add any codecs - I know this isn't a generally available thing on media players - but surely it's past time that it is?

No ethernet - by now media players should be putting Gb network cards in these players.

I'm not particularly interested in a new player until I see something that can play my blu-ray collection rips (ok, the blu-rays I will start buying once I can rip and play them from images).

Too many media players seem designed to play downloaded rips of poor-quality movie files, or just poor-quality rips of owned DVDs, or poor-quality recorded videos recorded off TV. Personally, I want quality.

Although...

Where it comes to terminology, I err on the side of 'cracker' here, even though I can see that in this case he isn't really a cracker.

He's just a tool. Some w*nkshaft who a TV show would show tapping away at a keyboard looking up and down at the keyboard and screen as if he was working hard at cracking his way into the excessively secure Government systems whilst Jack Bauer hunted him before he got into the email account that contained the secret list of ways of spelling viagra that get past spam filters.

Either that or someone was worried that if someone cracked into Palin's email they'd see just how much online shopping was done with the taxpayers credit card.

Oh come on!

'Even more bizarre is the 1.075GHz spike in the middle of Millom in Cumbria. This emanates from the square in the centre of the North-eastern town, without propagating down nearby streets, indicating a vertical transmission, but where it's coming from is anyone's guess.'

You can't say things like that without knowing you're just feeding the government paranoids and alien hunters! That's mean!

The faults lie in both directions

Evidence, as in actual fact, should never be omitted from a case. In the US in particular I have noticed that a judge will deem evidence non-admissable despite it being something like a clear recording of someone admitting guilt, just on a technicality. In fact, this news story cites a big screwup in the system where someone isn't put on trial because one juror went off on their own. You don't let people go - you dismiss the juror (and charge them if they've broken the law) and then you bring in one of the backup jurors you should have sitting in the court room at all times.

If the jurors, ie the populace, had faith in the system giving them all the information, they wouldn't feel the need to go seek information elsewhere.

The lawyers/solicitors should not be allowed to address the jury. The witnesses should be able to give their testimony in whatever way they choose, but emotional manipulation by a more 'charismatic' speaker has too-long been the way out for some criminals.

Perhaps certain evidence needs to be separate from testimony. DNA and other FACTUAL evidence need to be given to the jury as fact and not allowed to be discussed verbally. Emotional and personal testimony should be allowed verbally.

This smacks of 'Can I, Dad?'

Well, can I, dad? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I?

Just accept it, it was refused, voted against, stopped, not happening.

It shouldn't be allowed to be reviewed until after the next general election, or a different home secretary...